Talking “Shmaltz” With Ivonne

hello everyone and welcome to the oh you podcast hello everyone and welcome to the O you podcast we have a very special guest who is usually the one doing the welcoming so I get to one up you today by getting to say hello first our very own Ivonne Gonzalez Ivonne yes welcome thank you thank you that big smile that's what we get to see every single time we walk into the office your official title is supreme leader of all no just receptionist oh receptionist I receive and just say hello to everyone say good morning to everyone and big just give them a big smile and then that's it this is what they look forward seeing my smile they look forward to that so we do every day let start okay by asking you the most difficult question we ask everybody oh no tell us a little bit about yourself sure uh was born in the low side which is considered Lees uh lived here my whole life I won't tell you how old I am but uh never been anywhere else but Manhattan I went to school in Stewart Park High School I live on the on Grand Street so I pretty much know the history of theany Street and Essex there was so much different cultures I have two siblings actually I have my brother and I have a sister um both my parents uh one has been gone but that's okay still have my mom and I have two children well two men actually one is what like 38 and I have a 31y old so they do good for themselves I'm very proud mom very proud they're proud of me too and are yeah we're proud of you thanks how did you get to the OU you know I I was in an agency it's called Barack they were giving me temp jobs because I wasn't sure where I wanted to be placed and uh this was the last one that they told me I should be here for the summer only and I said okay so I of course I came with a jacket and whatever and sat at the front desk and months went by summer was over kept going and I'm saying wow you know what's happening you know I'm still in an agency you know are they going to ask me to stay or what so I get an email from one of the bosses and they said if I wanted the job and I said absolutely why why did you say yes uh from the time that I got hired I learned a lot about theou sure and uh I learned to love them appreciate them learn their food yeah learned some of the Yiddish words yeah really what is schaltz what is schmalz yeah is that chicken fat fat yes I just learned that yesterday okay so I'm saving the fat now they said it's good to uh cook with have you eaten it yet no I haven't eaten it but I've been saving it okay so I'm going to cook with it they say you can make it with soup too so I've yet to make Mata soup I'd rather have other people make you're you're get you're getting you're getting all ahead let there's so much to ask about all of this I don't even know where to start but do you have a favorite Jewish food um I like pami roast beef but what's my favorite I just had it last week it's like a little fluff uh felo and it has mashed potatoes inside of it a potato KES yeah but that tastes so much better I like that okay I enjoy doing eating that okay yeah that's a good one I still have a few statues refer that's what happens when you get your own fridge yeah that's one thing I learned about the OU they love food yeah I've become that person I look forward for food now well we are in the food industry so we do it does make sense it does make sense and it's interesting when you're talking about your history but food is part of your background food is food is part of your history so is it I didn't know how to cook then but I learned at it late the later time in my time so but I've become a good cook I like Italian food more yeah Italian food is easy to cook like what you know like uh make carbonada which is like what eggplant okay there's so many people that make eggplant and so I don't know how you call it but I think it's more the Mediterranean type dish babaan yes I like that okay that's really good and um uh Spanish food is very easy for me to make but it takes work well you know you could have kosher Italian and kosher Spanish food so you could that that might be your next calling is to put those things together well I'm really looking forward for one day for Co for the Orthodox Union to actually we have such a beautiful Cafe yeah that the lighting would be great to I wanted for them to make hollor bread because I don't know how to make that okay so I've been Pro you know asking them to my wife just taught a class on that the other night she could come here and your wife should come here and teach us how to do kala I think that would be awesome I'll tell Julie yeah right on that yeah good we okay so aside from okay so you have your kosher food down what about like yish words what kind of words what's your favorite yish word schmalz we got one IAT IAL yeah see I say gavat but it's gaval right but it's okay what what's the equivalent you you you mentioned part of your heritage is Mexican Mexican my father's from Mexico yeah and my mom's Puerto Rican okay so what's the equivalent of I like that's that's I so it's close it's close you must be cousins okay um so what did we miss about your your history that got you to be this welcoming friendly loving smiley person how did you how did you grow into that you know what it's not worth being angry frustrated annoyed short you know in Temper we you get that a lot here in New York City I we're all very flustered frustrated I like to be different I Like Mondays to be like my Fridays I don't know why but I don't look at Monday as new week go back to work no I look forward to it yeah honestly I do is Monday your favorite day or Friday actually no Monday is a good day for me CU it's like a beginning of the day for me for others Sunday is but Monday is usually like my fresh start of the day I sit there and the first thing I say is Hi good morning you know and that makes my day don't know why but it it's something I enjoy I I enjoy saying good morning to people I enjoy welcoming people I enjoy calling you out by your name or having a great day and you know what I I don't know how to accept compliments very well I'm pretty shy about those things I just feel that this just comes natural for me that's that's great well we appreciate it everybody does and it's great to have a chance to dive in and get to know you a little bit beyond just the hello and welcome especially because you know you say you're shy but you're doing pretty well on a on a podcast that millions of people are going to see yeah what do you do uh when you're not at work what do you do for fun what do I do I definitely have a dog so I have to walk my dog every day what kind of dog I love he's a shy he's mixed with a shih tzu yosik Terrier wow uh he was the biggest one out of the whole thing and my sister has his little sister she's only 8 lb he's 35 PBS wow big difference right smart dog I've learned he's 10 years old W I've learned to become a dog gromor isn't that funny and uh we both fight just for your own dog or for I've done it for my dog I've done it for his little sister uh he's got a lot of hair he's very small he's a small dog but he's got a lot of hair and uh I've been a hairdresser so that calms me down doing hair I was a hairdresser many years in the cosmetologist I studied that um I've always been a receptionist though really since I was 18 years old wow and um very different uh every company Works differently here it's like they just gave me the floor and I just out of all the experiences that I've had through the past I I just placed it here what have you seen change and grow at the OU maybe over the years we've moved places but like you you get a sense of the people is it pretty much the same is it changed in any way I've gotten to learn how to pronounce all the rabbi names they're not easy and uh we have a an enormous amount of people that are comedians talented with it comes to uh filming uh joking cooking stuff like that and I've learned a lot of things and got to know a lot of the people's personality we got a lot of rabbis that are pretty serious but then you have those that are very comical and uh the women are wonderful they're lovely uh I enjoy everyone that I speak with in fact uh when we moved here I kind of a little bit skeptic about being in the middle of the center of the floor I was so used to being in a corner somewhere hidden in a bulletproof window so I never got to know who anyone was wow um and then uh when I got to the new building which is here it was toly totally different everyone came to the front desk um I I mean that's like the uh powow section which one which which do you like better you like here yeah here definitely here it's brighter it's opened um but also you get more attention is that absolutely is that good not that I want the attention but uh everyone asks me everything Ivon you know everything no I don't a lot of people feel very welcome when they come to the Orthodox Union I want them to feel welcome especially if it's their first time heing here to see one of our CEOs our vice president our president of the company and and um it it's um how would I say I've learned a lot of things well like the month of Passover um when we have Yore and Passover um I've tried to understand them so I Google things just to get an idea on on the seriousness of the culture that's great yeah doing your research yeah and you know what being here keeps you whole can I say that yeah it does how so it keeps you in line you know it keeps you in line keeps you proper um there are standards uh there are boundaries but they're good boundaries so it it it keeps me in a state of a good way of thinking about wow life uh about people it's very different for me do you have any questions for me you know this is I I've been asking all the questions it's been one directional could ask you did ask about Schmaltz so I guess we could we could count that but what else uh what else can I help you with I would ask you I mean I live in New York City so it's a the level is up here yeah right so like what would you do to sort of relax or like what do you do to relax yourself like how do you shake it off I come in and I'm greeted by Ivonne with a big hello and that's it that's all that's all I need but do you well I'm also a dog person oh okay so we have a dog we have a bernadoodle which is a cross between barones and nice poodle and um she's a she's a handful she's a handful she's amazing um I I I run that's my like uh excellent I used to run too that's my meditative that's good see I like to crochet yeah I do things with my hands that's good you you what are you crocheting oh I do blankets I do the scarves I do the basic stuff right now I'm learning how to do flowers y you know that's a good idea yamaka we have a whole stash in my drawer I know but none that are made by you no none made by me okay maybe that's the next project yeah I'll probably put one with the starf David up there that would be cool right that would be awesome that'll be awesome that's the next that's the next big fundraiser yes is Ivon crochet yamakas yeah yamakas okay yeah love it okay we're going to ask you a few questions M couple OU questions and we call this rapid fire and um we're going to ask you and we'll uh give you some options if you want also okay okay so uh let's get going with rapid fire questions when was the OU established 1889 I figured 18 something but 1898 or 1901 18 something yeah yeah so 1898 you're pretty close Okay okay how many people work in the OU headquarters 200 to 250 250 to 300 300 to 350 or 350 to 400 I'm going to say 350 I actually think it's more like 300 but uh but but pretty good I mean because a lot of people the ones that not yeah not all the time right exactly okay now some general questions where's the world's largest desert when I read this the first time I wanted to say where is the world's largest dessert I guess I might be hungry right I'm not sure all right but where is the world's largest desert said Sahara United States Israel Egypt or Antarctica Egypt actually Antarctica okay never been there yeah one of your hobbies is that you like to crochet right um but you now have a new interest in learning a specific language Hebrew Hebrew why Hebrew I might as well yeah I mean I get calls are you Jewish I'm sorry I'm not but I can try to help you so you know I said to myself maybe if I learned just a little bit just defend for myself I did help the opposite I helped one of my uh kosher rabbis he asked me if I can help him translate not in Hebrew in Spanish okay and let me tell you it's not that simple right you know I I that may be my second language but I only use it to defend myself meaning that um someone someone's lost I help them try to help them in Spanish so any kind of reactive it's a reacting thing but it is it something I normally would sit down and speak to my mom in Spanish absolutely not right my kids are the same way yeah I failed Spanish can you believe that I in my class I failed Spanish okay one thing we didn't know about you before this mhm I fail Spanish so what's something else we don't know about you that that you wanted to share what I'm not going to perform though but I love to sing you can't you can't tease us like that I know but I where do you sing where do you oh I used to sing so much in uh in church I used to I sang one time in the carak cafe I sang there wow um it it's funny but the I love to sing but if no one just doesn't look at me I'm fine I can't hold on to a microphone because it does this so I leave it there on the stand and just don't touch it and I keep my eyes completely closed because I tend to drift off into my singing and I haven't sang in quite some time but I used to love to sing love to dance when I'm cleaning very crafty put it that way I love doing craft the way we like to end off the interview is um we ask you to give a blessing to the OU so what would be your blessing to the OU that the ouu will continue to bloom and grow strong and that we are able to help the community and uh help them understand everything the from the Torah to the kosher uh and to what all the programs do to offer uh the people you know you're not alone thank you and our blessing to you thank you is it the smile that you radiate out to everybody who works here everybody who comes in through the door that that comes back at you infinity fold that you feel all that warmth and love of everybody who you meet do thank you thank you I get that a lot thanks